This invention relates to a low cost assembly for the removal and recovery of fat, oil and/or grease (hereinafter referred to as oil/grease) found in effluent discharge of restaurants, food processing, or like facilities, or other circumstances involving mixtures of oil/grease to be recovered or removed.
Oil/grease removal or recovery systems are well known. Sewer system lines can become clogged from the oil/grease waste materials put into the sewer system from food handling facilities. This has led more and more sewer authorities to implement fats, oils and grease control programs. These programs regulate food handling facilities and the manner in which they process oil/grease. The object of many of these programs is to ensure that food handling facilities remove as much of the oil/grease as possible from the effluent flow, thereby releasing only grey water, perhaps with solids, to the sewer system.
One method recognized in the prior art of accomplishing such removal is the use of a container including one or more rotating disks formed of a plastic or like material to which oil/grease contaminants are attracted. Typically, the rotation of the disk is in an at least partially immersed condition, which allows the oil to cling to one or both sides of the disk so that contaminants are removed from the body of water upon rotation of the disk. Scrapers are typically used to remove the oil contaminants from the opposite sides of the disk and channel such contaminants to a collection or disposal storage unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,881 to Miller et al. is representative of such oil/grease removal systems containing one or more rotating disks. The Miller et al. patent discloses an oil or grease removal assembly which removes such contaminants from the surface of the body of water and includes a rotatable disk made of plastic or other material to which such oil contaminants have an affinity, so they adhere to the disk. The disk is disposed in cooperative relation to an elongated trough having scraper blades for engaging the opposite sides of the disk for the removal of the oil contaminants therefrom with the trough disposed and structured to direct such oil contaminants away from the disk and the body of water via the trough to a storage container. The disclosure of the Miller patent, assigned to Thermaco, Inc. in Asheboro, N.C., is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The existing devices may be difficult to service and are very often permanently installed at facility sites. Because many of the parts are coated with oil/grease, servicing can be messy and time consuming. In addition, these systems tend to be expensive and represent a significant capital investment. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an method and apparatus for separation of oil/grease from wastewater which is simple in design, low in cost and capable of being serviced easily in the field because of the availability of low cost replaceable parts which are easily installed and do not require extensive and costly repair.